The Growth Newsletter #077

Brand new SEO playbook, virality, content upgrades, and SaaS conversion.  ‌ ‌ ‌ [Demand Curve] The Growth Newsletter #077 [Read in browser](=) Welcome to the 878 new marketers and founders who joined last week!  This week we're covering virality, content upgrades, and SaaS conversion.  If you don’t find this valuable, you can permanently unsubscribe at the bottom of this email. If you like it, tell your friends to [subscribe here](. Together with Marketing Brew.  Staying on top of marketing news and trends can be a full-time job. Marketing Brew does the hard work for you, dropping a quick-to-read newsletter in your inbox every weekday. From influencers and ad tech to social media & more, Marketing Brew never misses a beat. Join a community of over 255K professionals and upgrade your marketing game. Check it out & [subscribe here](. Fresh Demand Curve playbook  We just released a brand new playbook, [Content-led SEO]( in partnership with [Clearscope](.  We interviewed some of the best SEOs on the planet, and sourced proven insights from SEO professionals at Grow and Convert, Minuttia, Graphite, and Clearscope, among others, to get as close as possible to the source of truth.  The result is an 80/20 of how to execute a content-led SEO strategy for B2B SaaS in 2022.  Interested? We included a snippet at to the bottom of this newsletter so you can dive right in.  1. The six principles behind social sharing Insight from Jonah Berger’s book [Contagious: Why Things Catch On](.  As you create a product, service, or piece of content that you want to go viral, carefully consider why someone would share it.  Jonah Berger, a professor at Wharton, conducted rigorous research to figure out why people share. Here are the six reasons he found (with examples of each):  1. Social currency: “We share things that make us look good.” - We all seek social approval. It’s human nature. So we share things that we think will boost others’ perception of us. - Example: When the founder of [SmartBargains.com]( launched a new site, Rue La La, he made it invitation-only. It sold the same products as Smart Bargains. But because consumers now felt like insiders—a badge of social currency—they bought a lot more.‍ 2. Triggers: “Top of mind, tip of tongue.” - We share and talk about things we come across. Which is why people discuss things they see regularly (like Cheerios) more than things that are less visible in their everyday lives (like Disney World). - Example: The most inescapable song of 2011, Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” peaked in daily searches every Friday after it came out. 3. Emotion: “When we care, we share.” - We share things that make us emotional. Things that elicit high-arousal positive emotions (awe, excitement, and amusement) and negative emotions (anger and anxiety). - Examples: Basically, [everything]( [on Upworthy](. 4. Public visibility: “Built to show, built to grow.” - We imitate things we see. We’ll go to the food truck with the long line and sign up for the email service we see others using (AOL, then Hotmail, then Gmail). - Example: The Apple logo is upside down on a closed MacBook. But it’s right side up when the MacBook is open—say, at a coffee shop where others are working nearby. That’s solid public branding.‍ 5. Practical value: “News you can use.” - We share useful information. Passing along helpful tips, tutorials, guidance, etc., strengthens social bonds. - Examples: #lifehacks viral videos on TikTok, Brené Brown TED Talks‍ 6. Stories: “Information travels under the guise of idle chatter.” - Berger explains that “people don’t think in terms of information. They think in terms of narratives.” Which is why Aesop didn’t just say the words, “Don’t give up.” Instead, he told a story about a slow-yet-persevering tortoise who ended up winning a race. - Example: Unboxing videos are a type of story. As psychologist Pamela Rutledge [puts it](, each is “a mini-three act play with an exposition (presenting the box), rising action and conflict (what is it? can I get the box open? will I like it?) and resolution or denouement (showing what’s in the box).” For more on virality, check out our [complete guide to organic viral marketing](.  2. The PDF opportunity: How to rank for high-intent content upgrades Insight from [SEO Blueprint](.  Marketers know PDF content upgrades are a potential game changer for the conversion rate of a blog. PDF keywords, on the other hand, are a surprisingly overlooked content opportunity.  No matter what niche you’re in, there's a good chance people are looking for PDFs related to the product or service you sell. Consider the following keyword examples:  Search volumes may be low, but so is the competition. What's more, search intent is crystal clear. Searchers have problems and they're looking for solutions—PDF resources about their specific dilemma.  To find relevant PDF keyword opportunities in your space: - Search for the keyword "PDF" in Ahrefs' Keyword Explorer. - Exclude modifiers suggesting the searcher is looking for a software solution, not information (e.g., convert, merge, compress, save, turn, combine). - Include keyword modifiers related to your niche (e.g., keto, trading, social media marketing). - Scan the results for relevant PDF keywords you can create content for. Once you have your keyword(s), create a landing page or blog post on the topic and offer a PDF bonus in exchange for an email address. The bonus can be a unique asset (e.g., checklist, cheat sheet, guide) or a nice-looking PDF version of the original content. Experiment and see what works.  Content upgrades have the potential to lift conversions as much as 500%—possibly more.  And if you can rank for those assets, you’ll have yourself a self-perpetuating traffic and conversion machine.  3. Optimize your SaaS site to show off your product’s UI Insight from [Baymard](.  More than a third of SaaS websites don’t show enough of their product’s user interface (UI), according to research from Baymard.  Why this matters: Without a visual representation of your UI, people don’t feel like they know enough about your product. So even if your site has text describing how your software works, they won’t necessarily feel confident about moving forward.  That’s because, according to research, users most value UI representations in the form of images, GIFs, videos, and demos. Take note—we listed those in descending order of importance. Images come first.  Why not videos?  Videos take longer to load and require more user effort. (Users first need to decide to watch a video, then click “play” and adjust their audio volume.) In other words, a video is a lot more demanding than a screenshot. The same goes for demos, which feel like extra commitment compared to images and GIFs.  This is actually good news for optimizing your SaaS site, since creating images requires less effort. Here are five tips for better representing your product: - Prioritize showing images of your product’s UI. Take screenshots of key screens, like your main dashboard and most important product features. Example: [Clearscope]( displays a screenshot of its text optimizer on its homepage. - Show more concrete images of your product than abstract ones. Abstract graphics show only an interpretation of your product. The online counseling platform [BetterHelp]( could do better here. Instead of using abstract illustrations, it could show its app’s scheduling and messaging functions, plus other features. - If you do use videos, make them short and loop them. The idea is to make your videos mimic GIFs, which often sacrifice image quality. Take a look at the looping six-second video on [HelpDesk’s homepage]( for some inspiration. - Make sure non-looped videos load quickly and have scrubbing previews. This is best for longer video walkthroughs with audio. Scrubbing previews show what’ll happen in a video when you move your cursor across a video’s timeline—they give users an idea of what to expect. - If your demos are self-guided, make that clear. A CTA button that says “Try a demo” feels much more inviting and low-effort than one that says “Book a demo.”   News and links Two exciting announcements this week: - Reminder to check out our brand new playbook: [Content-Led SEO](. - Major content refresh: We've completely overhauled our [Glossary of Marketing Terms](. It now has a whopping 120 terms vs. the original’s 50, and covers the latest and most important topics in growth marketing today. This is one to bookmark and include alongside your foundational marketing resources. News you can use: - Instagram is launching a [creator marketplace]( to help brands find creators to partner with. It's invite-only for now, but brands will be able to access the platform right inside Meta Business Suite. - Twitter is releasing an ads API that will give advertisers the ability to [A/B test]( campaigns. - Google. [Google Ads Creative studio]( is now available to all businesses. This tool makes it easier to build and customize different ad formats based on your uploaded assets. Should be a real time saver for Google Ads media buyers. - Amazon. If you operate in the ecom space, you may find some useful consumer insights in this [Prime Day 2022 recap](. For instance, the most popular purchase category was Household Essentials, followed by Health & Beauty. Top new marketing jobs  If you're looking for a top growth role, check out the opportunities below from our [job board](. [Senior Growth Strategist Bell Curve Join Demand Curve's flagship growth marketing agency. We are your full-service growth team. We can manage everything from strategy to execution.](   Something fun From [@artmemescentral](   Want more growth tactics? We're giving away our entire back catalog of tactics to folks who refer two friends to this newsletter. Here's your referral link to share: [(. You can track your referrals [here](. We'll automatically email you the password-protected tactics page once you've referred two people.    Together with Clearscope.  This playbook was created in partnership with Clearscope—the leading content optimization platform. Clearscope helps thousands of businesses like Adobe, Shopify, Condé Nast, Nvidia, Deloitte, Intuit, and HubSpot increase SEO traffic at scale.  Want to take Clearscope for a test drive? Demand Curve community members can get up to [3 complimentary Clearscope reports here](. Content-led SEO SEOs are an opinionated bunch, but they tend to agree on two things: - Backlinks aren't as important as they used to be, and - keywords aren't either That's good news. It means you don't have to compete on the same dimensions as the big players in your industry. From the start, Google's goal has been to serve users the most relevant results on the web. But the algorithm has fundamentally changed in the last few years—for the better. The days of spamming your way to the front page are ending, and high-quality content is finally starting to get the respect it deserves SEO. How does SEO work in 2022 Google's mission is to give searchers the information they're looking for, presented in the most helpful way, as quickly as possible. The nuances of Google's algorithm are too complex to dig into here, but we've distilled the process we believe Google uses to rank webpages into three phases: Phase 1. Technical SEO helps Google access, understand, and serve your content. Google can't rank your content if they can't find your content. Healthy technical SEO makes it easier for Google-bot (Google's webpage crawler) to crawl your site, find important pages, and give them greater visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Starting from a baseline of good technical health means your site loads fast, is free of errors, and has a logical site structure. Phase 2. Topical authority helps Google determine where your content initially ranks. Google associates websites with topics that are related to their site's identity and overall business objectives. The strength of these associations is commonly known as topical authority. Google rewards sites with stronger associations (topical authority) with greater visibility in the SERP. To build topical authority in your niche, Google needs proof that you're a credible subject matter expert. There are two main ways to demonstrate this kind of expertise: ‍‍ - ‍Content helps Google understand what topics a page should rank for and whether it fulfills the search intent for those keywords.‍ - Links have been an important ranking factor since the beginning. They help Google determine the relative authority of domains and specific pages. The more links, the more authoritative the page or site is. Phase 3. User engagement helps Google determine whether your content should continue ranking. This idea is controversial, but many experts now believe the algorithm looks at user engagement metrics to determine which pages are helpful to users and which aren't. We believe the most important indicator is whether a user has to return to Google to perform a subsequent search. Let's look at two common scenarios to see how this works. - ‍Scenario 1. You Google [email marketing], and click into the first result for a "what is" guide to email marketing. It's exactly what you're looking for. So helpful that you poke around the site for more insights. - ‍Scenario 2. You open the same article but this time the content isn't quite what you're looking for. So you click "back" and search for something more specific: [how to do email marketing]. The behavior in Scenario 1 tells Google the first article was relevant to the search—it fulfilled the searcher's intent. Mission complete in Google's playbook. The behavior in scenario 2—returning to Google to perform another search—makes Google lose confidence in how relevant the page is to the original query (email marketing). As a result, Google questions whether a more relevant page should take its place.‍ Key point: User behavior impacts rankings Before, you could rank generic "SEO content" provided you had enough links and on-page optimization. Now, unless you provide a premium content experience that ends the searcher's journey, you don't stand a chance of ranking for your target keyword in the top three positions. This is a fundamental shift in SEO because people are now the final judge of whether content is valuable or not, not just algorithms. Let that sink in. To succeed, your content has to appease the algorithm first (near-term ranking), then please the reader (long-term ranking). In this playbook, we'll teach you how to produce premium content for search. The kind that's engineered to rank, resonate, and convert—the kind your prospects actually enjoy reading, not justg tolerate. Before we dive into the strategy, let's dispel a few common myths. SEO myths and misconceptions‍ "More search volume means more conversions" ‍Most companies still fixate on driving as much search traffic as possible. Usually, this means targeting competitive, high-search volume keywords with low conversion intent (top-funnel content). This approach is logical if you're a media company subsisting on page views and ad revenue. But for most businesses, it's an incredibly inefficient way to generate ROI from SEO. You'll drive more conversions targeting lower search volume, high intent keywords towards the bottom of the funnel. ‍ "Bigger budgets drive better results" Big companies tend to scale as fast as possible, usually by investing in a high quantity of posts at the expense of quality. This strategy worked well when backlinks were the dominant ranking factor, but it's starting to lose its effectiveness. ‍Today's dominant ranking factors are relevance and quality—the core of content-led SEO. With the right content strategy, you can use your limited resources to produce less content and likely drive better business results. ‍ "You'll never outrank the big players in the SERP" ‍Many businesses assume they'll never outrank sites with big, scary domain ratings. This assumption is false. In many cases, current rankings reflect past strategies that are now outdated. You can often dethrone the incumbents by competing on dimensions with less competition—content and user experience. Three things marketers need to know about content-led SEO 1. Think niche‍ Your goal of content-led SEO is to demonstrate topical authority in the core topics your website is—and should be—known for. In practice, this means focusing on product-related keywords with clear search intent. To build defensible topical authority, cover the specific topic you want to be associated with from all angles and search intents. 2. Topics are the new keywords ‍It used to be best practice to target one keyword per page, and you could expect that page to rank regardless of other content on your site. Now, it's best practice to target one topic per page—one unique search intent—and include relevant keywords (sub-topics and search perspectives) within that content. 3. Context is king‍ Your content needs to fit the particular context associated with your target keywords. But context isn't limited to words on a page—you must create content experiences that engage users on multiple dimensions (e.g., video, images, widgets, testimonials) to fulfill search intent. What this playbook covers This playbook teaches you how to execute a modern content-led SEO strategy. The nuances may evolve over time, but this strategy is evergreen. We interviewed some of the best SEO's on the planet to bring you the most concise, actionable, and up-to-date playbook possible—the 80/20 of modern-day SEO. And we sourced proven insights from SEO professionals at Grow and Convert, Minuttia, Graphite, and Clearscope, among others, to get as close as possible to the source of truth. If you implement what we teach in the playbook, you'll get most of the results by doing less but better. You'll walk away knowing how to prioritize the next best action to take, whether that's performing targeted keyword research, creating original content, performing a content audit, or dialing in your site architecture—we teach it all. No fluff. Nothing that doesn't move the needle forward. The best SEO content strategy prioritizes quality and depth, not volume and breadth. When successful, SEO, just like great content marketing, can: - Drive consistent, ongoing traffic and leads - Develop brand reputation and authority - Generate compounding results You'll need to work diligently to build strong topical authority in your niche to achieve these kinds of results for your business. Two kinds of topical authority to build: - External topical authority: Involves activities that happen outside of your website. Also called "off-site SEO." Building external topical authority is an uphill battle; you don't have much control over the actions or the outcomes. - Internal topical authority: Involves activities that happen on your website. Also called "on-site SEO." Building internal topical authority is high-leverage; you have complete control over the actions and, to a lesser degree, the outcomes. This playbook teaches you how to build internal topical authority with content. Content-led SEO is a quality-first, content-driven approach to building internal topical authority. And topical authority, as we discuss throughout the piece, is the key that unlocks rankings, search traffic, and ideally, conversions. The strategy and examples we share are specific to B2B SaaS SEO, but they can generally work for B2C as well. [Continue reading this Content-led SEO playbook](   What did you think of this week's newsletter?  [Loved it]( | [Great]( | [Good]( | [Meh]( | [Bad](  If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing with a friend. If a friend sent you this, get the next newsletter by signing up [here](.  Who's [Demand Curve](? We’re who marketers and founders rely on to solve real marketing problems. We skip trends and fluffy stories and only share high-quality, vetted, and actionable growth content from the top 1% of marketers.  How we can help you grow: - Read our free [playbooks](, [blog articles](, and [teardowns](—we break down the strategies and tactics that fast-growing startups use to grow. - Enroll in the [Growth Program](, our professional course that will help you get traction and scale revenue. - Hire our agency, [Bell Curve](, and we'll grow your startup for you. - Engage with our audience by [sponsoring]( Demand Curve. See you next week.  — Nick, Grace, Joyce, Dennis, and the DC team. [Nick] Nick Costelloe [Grace] Grace Parazzoli [Joyce] Joyce Chou [Dennis] Dennis Buckley   © 2022 Demand Curve, Inc. All rights reserved. 4460 Redwood Hwy, Suite 16-535, San Rafael, California, United States [Unsubscribe](=) from all emails, including the newsletter, or [manage]( subscription preferences.